Jagran Pehel's new event dabbles with Health issues!

With a view to foster the crusade for a healthy and disease free society, Pehel, a social initiative arm of Jagran Prakashan Ltd., in collaboration with WDF (World Diabetes Foundation) organized a high level meeting on "Linkages between MDGs, maternal health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with special reference to Diabetes' in Hotel The Lalit, in the capital yesterday. Luminaries attended the meeting from the medical fraternity along with the representatives from disparate government, quasi-government and private bodies to discuss the seminal ideas around the health issues, with special focus on maternal and child health.

Gulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India, Mahendra Mohan Gupta, CMD and Managing Editor, Dainik Jagran, Bansidhar Bhagat, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Uttarakhand, Ms. Ms. Frederika, Meijer, Country Representative, UNFPA, India, Dr. Henri Van Dam Homberg, Chief, Health Section, UNICEF, India Dr. CS Yajnik, Director, Diabetes Unit, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Pune, Dr. V Seshaiah, Advisor GDM Project, Govt of Tamil Nadu, Dr. Naresh Trehan, CMD, Medanta Medicity, Dr. A.K. Das, Advisor, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI, Dr. Subhadra Menon, Head Communication and Advocacy, PHFI, Sanjay Kumar, Executive Director, Bihar State Health Society , Jaydev Sarangi, IAS, Director NRHM, Govt. of Delhi and Dr. Ambrish Mithal, Chairman, Endocrinology, Medanta Medicity were some of the Key dignitaries present at the seminar.

Speaking at the occasion, Gulam Nabi Azad, underlined that maternal health and MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) share a direct linkage and the subject is one of the top priorities of the Health Ministry. In 2004-2005, both the MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) and IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) was very high. The inception of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005-2006 was a step in the direction of addressing these core issues of healthcare among women and children. He also emphasized the importance of dealing with Non-communicable diseases as India stands impacted the most by NCDs and sought cooperation of all interest groups in strengthening hands of the Govt. in setting up mechanisms for the prevention and detection of NCDs.

Mahendra Mohan Gupta also cited it as one of the top challenges of the 21st century. He also emphasized the need of increasing awareness amongst the masses, regarding NCDs, maternal care and child malnutrition etc. In this context he lauded the efforts of Jagran Pehel, in bringing to light these niggling issues and working even in the remote areas to help people fight these menaces. He further stated that threat of non-communicable diseases constitutes one of the major challenges for development in the twenty-first century, which undermines social and economic development throughout the world and threatens the achievement of internationally, agreed development goals.

He emphasized that we all know these health problems are closely linked with lack of awareness among the general mass. Realizing this need, Jagran Pehel the social initiative wing of Jagran Group has come forward with strategic interventions around different social issues. Mass media coupled with on ground interventions with communities always result in positive changes that could be experienced in different projects implemented by Jagran Pehel. Diabetes as a health issue has remained one of the focus area of intervention for Jagran Pehel. Two successive projects in year 2007-08 and 2010-11 on Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes has successfully met the objective of awareness generation in millions of people and ensuring positive policy level responses.

Underlining the role of WDF in fighting against Diabetes and allied diseases, its MD Dr. Anil Kapur shared that since last 4-5 years WDF has diabetes, maternal health and NCDs as its core concern areas and that it has funded nearly 15-16 projects in which 5 alone are India based. He invited all stakeholder to jointly fight against this growing epidemic.

This was followed by the round table discussions which saw prominent doctors, academicians and heads of Government's Health Departments, heads of NGOs, representatives of UNICEF, UNFPA and Medanta Medicity, deliberating upon the need of assessments and the solution oriented approaches that need to be mounted to fight these diseases. The broad linkage between the MDGs and the maternal and non-communicable diseases were discussed on the basis of need gap analysis. A clear consensus seemed to emerge concerning the policy implementation and execution of the health welfare programmes both at the national and state level as well as the district level.

Anand Madhab, National Head, Pehel, who led the project, emphasized the need to create awareness amongst the masses for NCDs and maternal disorders and sensitize the stakeholders towards active participation in engendering support for such programmes. Madhab said that we are here to discuss a very important issue pertaining to our national health priority. Recently held UN high level meeting on NCD has definitely generated the desired political support for the issue. But still many challenges are there before actualization of these political commitments. He stressed that it is needless to mention again that how Non Communicable Diseases have occupied the centre stage of overall health scenario globally as well as in a developing country like India. My learned friends in this room with ample exposure to public health concern can further highlight the linkages of early origin of health associated with pre birth conditions and how it is interlinked with the maternal health.

Jagran Pehel in association with World Diabetes Foundation has tried to play a catalytic role through creating awareness on specific issue of gestational diabetes and sensitizing different stakeholders towards this issue. But a single or two organizations or agencies cannot address the larger challenge in the national context. It requires a well-concerted effort through multi-sectoral multistakeholder commitments and engagements.

The final leg of high-level conference on Non-communicable disease and maternal health, with a special focus on diabetes was culminated here in the capital at Indian Habitat Center. Yesterday's meeting was focused on deliberating on the agenda for National Forum on Gestational Diabetes and its Management and was attended by some distinguished doctors, administrators, ministers and Govt officials. The dignitaries present there included Shri Sudip Bandopadhyay, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare, GOI, Sanjay Gupta, Editor and CEO, Dainik Jagran, Ashok Kumar Walia, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Delhi, Ashwani Kumar Chaubey, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Bihar Govt., Dr. M Musa, CEO and Country Director, CARE India, along with some other luminaries who were present in the first day of the conference too.

Speaking at the occasion Sanjay Gupta told the audience that in the changing times health has become a primary concern due to altered lifestyles and increased environmental hazards. He emphasized on the need to bridge the information deficit amongst the masses for NCDs, especially diabetes, and to sensitize the stakeholders to raise awareness about this issue.

Sudip Bandopadyay in his address applauded the efforts of Pehel (a social initiative by Jagran Prakashan Limited), who has initiated this campaign one year back. He cited that there has been a sharp increase in the number of diabetic patients in India. There are estimated 40 million diabetic patients in India which comes only after China, which it is likely to supersede in the near future. This imposes a huge economic burden on the economy of the country and of course on the financial well being of the infected person and its family.

Underlining the advancements in the healthcare arena in Bihar Ashwani Chaubey told the gathering that the initiatives of the state government like Jan Jagran abhiyaan and swasthya chetna yatra have resulted in heightened awareness among the people about issues like child nutrition, maternal care and personal hygiene etc.

This was followed by two panel discussions on "emerging issues in GDM and role of State and non-state players' and on "GDM and its relevance to Maternal and Child Health: a technical perspective. It was convened by Dr. Ambrish Mithal, Chairman, Endocrinology, Medanta Medicity. and Dr. Rishi Shukla, Consultant Endocrinology, Kanpur. The discussion covered the areas like screening for Gestational Diabetes, the timing and methodology of screening, monitoring, treatment and prevention of GDM. The components of programs and the role of stakeholders were also discussed.